Silvertips stay alive

KELOWNA, British Columbia – Kelly Guard lay sprawled out fully across the crease, face down, utterly lost in disbelief.

The best goalie in the Western Hockey League had just gifted the Everett Silvertips a new lease on life.

Bryan Nathe’s speculative shot from the neutral zone deflected off Guard’s stick and into the net, and the Silvertips kept their season alive with a 1-0 overtime victory over Kelowna Saturday night in the Western Conference finals.

Jeff Harvey made 22 saves to earn the shutout in goal for the Silvertips, who facing elimination instead forced a Game 6 Monday at the Everett Events Center. The Silvertips, who still trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, must win two straight to advance to the WHL championship series.

“We’re all pumped about (keeping the season alive),” Nathe said. “I don’t think anyone wanted to lose this one and ride the bus home knowing we weren’t going to play another game the rest of the year.”

The Silvertips managed just 15 shots on goal in three-plus periods and were pushed back into their own end for most of the game. But 5 minutes, 50 seconds into overtime, Nathe wristed a shot toward goal from the neutral zone.

Guard – who led the league in virtually every statistical category for goaltenders, set a WHL record with 13 shutouts and is one of two finalists for Player of the Year – had the puck bounce off his stick and deflect through his legs, handing Everett the victory.

“I was real surprised,” Nathe said about the goal, his second of the playoffs. “I didn’t even realize it went in the net until I got to the top of the circle.”

“It was before the red line,” Nathe added about his shot. “It was going to be icing. I just wanted to get it on net and luckily I got a bounce. I think maybe it would have been wide a few inches from the net, but it went off his stick and in the net.”

It was perhaps the worst goal Guard’s given up all season.

“It rode up my stick and off the blocker and in,” a stunned Guard said.

“It was bad luck. It’s a goal I can’t give up in the playoffs.”

But given the nature of the first three periods, it was going to take a bounce like that to determine the winner. Kelowna forechecked ferociously to keep the puck in Everett’s zone, and Harvey was rock solid, comfortably saving every shot put on net and giving up few rebounds.

“When it’s 0-0, especially in playoff overtime hockey, it’s often not a very pretty goal,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said. “You’ve got to just keep throwing pucks at the net. Typical of overtime, generally it’s some type of weird bounce and tonight the bounce went for us.”

For Harvey, it was his league-leading fourth shutout of the playoffs.

“They had a few quality chances, but kudos to my defense for keeping them away,” Harvey said. “They had them bottled up on the rebound on most of them so it wasn’t much of a problem tonight.”

Chances were few and far between in the first period. Each team managed just four shots on goal, despite the presence of three power plays for both. The best chance fell to Kelowna when on the power play, Shea Weber’s shot from the point forced Harvey into a good kick save, and Tyler Mosienko’s follow-up shot from the point whistled just wide.

It was more of the same in the second period, although Kelowna began to force Everett back into its own end. Kelwona nearly scored when Josh Gorges’ shot from the point deflected off traffic and over Harvey. However, the puck fell to the ice and bounced just wide.

Everett got pushed back even further in the third period. The Silvertips managed just one shot on goal in the first 19 minutes of the third, and that was a tame effort by Ivan Baranka from outside the blue line. In contrast, Kelowna had a number of chances. Early in the period Blake Comeau came off the bench and immediately skated in alone for a rebound in the left slot, but Harvey stood strong. Then, with a minute left, the Rockets had a golden opportunity to end the series, but Gorges mis-hit his redirect attempt when set up perfectly by Simon Ferguson.

Slap shots: Tickets for Game 6 go on sale at 10 a.m. today. Tickets can be purchased at the Everett Events Center box office, by calling 425-252-5100 or online at www.everettsilvertips.com. … Everett left wing Tyler Dietrich was scratched for the third straight game. Dietrich, who played in Game 1 and was used sparingly in Game 2, still has not fully recovered from a hit to the head suffered in the second round against Vancouver. … The Silvertips were fined $500 by the league for comments made by Constantine following Game 4. Constantine berated the officiating in the series, calling it, “one of the worst officiated series I’ve ever seen.”

At Kelowna, B.C.